Dodgers Notes: Tuesday, 9/17/2024
09/17/2024 12:41 PM
Happy Tuesday, Dodgers fans! The Los Angeles Dodgers capped off a mediocre week of Dodgers baseball by losing two of three against the Chicago Cubs and splitting a four-game series with the Atlanta Braves. They also received some disappointing injury news regarding Tyler Glasnow and others.
Week recap (9/9/2024-9/16/2024)
Cubs Recap: The Los Angeles Dodgers welcomed a red-hot Chicago Cubs team this past week after splitting a two-game series with the Los Angeles Angels on the road. The series would be critical for the Dodgers as they would finally get prized rookie right-handed pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto back off the 60-day injured list and would hope for Walker Buehler and Bobby Miller to take a step forward with Tyler Glasnow and multiple starters’ health in question with three weeks left.
The starting pitching would take a massive step back as Buehler and Miller were highly ineffective in their starts. The lone bright spot was Yamamoto’s return, as the righty went four solid innings, striking out eight Cubs hitters.
The offense would salvage the series’ final game, avoiding a sweep as they prepared to head on a huge seven-game road trip on the East Coast.
- Game One: 4-10, L
- Game Two: 3-6, L
- Game Three: 10-8, W
Braves Recap: After their three-game series with the Chicago Cubs, the Dodgers kicked off a seven-game road trip heading out East to face the Atlanta Braves, who are fighting for that last National League wild-card spot.
The Dodgers did not get off to the best start, dropping the first two games of this series. Rookie right-handed pitcher Landon Knack could only muster two innings, allowing five runs to a Braves offense that is missing many stars. Game two was no different, as Jack Flaherty and the Dodgers bullpen had the same issue the night before.
After regrouping prior to Sunday’s game with manager Dave Roberts, the Dodgers would pull together back-to-back wins to split the series thanks to pitching performances by Walker Buehler and Yoshinobu Yamamoto and an offensive explosion late in both games.
- Game One: 2-6, L
- Game Two: 1-10, L
- Game Three: 9-2, W
- Game Four: 9-0, W
Injury Notes
Over the week, the Los Angeles Angels Dodgers provided plenty of updates on players currently on the injured list and their status as we enter the final three weeks of the 2024 Major League Baseball regular season.
The Dodgers’ starting rotation has suffered massive setbacks at perhaps the worst time of the season, with veteran left-handed pitcher Clayton Kershaw, righties Gavin Stone and Tyler Glasnow, and others on the injured list.
Starting with Tyler Glasnow, the Dodgers’ right-handed pitcher, has been shut down with what Dave Roberts stated is a right elbow sprain.
Glasnow was set to take the next step in his rehab and face live hitters while the team was in Atlanta this past weekend. However, that was canceled after Glasnow experienced right elbow pain and was sent to get multiple scans done.
Roberts initially stated that the scans “were promising,” but in a twenty-four-hour period, that changed to Glasnow likely being done for the rest of the season, a massive blow to a Dodgers rotation that has depended on him and traded for him specifically to pitch in October.
Glasnow has not publicly spoken to the media since Dave Roberts’s comments, and on Sunday, his locker was cleaned out at Truist Park. Roberts does not know exactly where the righty is heading.
Gavin Stone, who was shut down with right shoulder inflammation last week and placed on the 15-day injured list, has gone ten full days without picking up a baseball. After the conclusion of the four-game series with the Atlanta Braves, Stone will begin a throwing program in hopes of returning in the final week of the regular season or the start of the postseason. More details are likely to come when the team is in Miami.
Veteran left-handed pitcher Clayton Kershaw, who was placed on the 15-day injured list due to a bone spur in his left toe that forced him to leave his last start against the Arizona Diamondbacks early, has continued throwing.
Despite being seen in a walking boot, Kershaw has continued to throw bullpens on a makeshift mound in the outfield at Dodger Stadium. According to Dodgers manager Dave Roberts, Kershaw is dealing with more than just a bone spur.
"It's also not just a spur; there's some, but I don't know if it's tendons or ligaments. There are other things going on that I don't think it's even close to similar.
Kershaw is trying everything he can to stay in baseball shape, such as consulting Skechers on new cleats and throwing barefoot. The lefty knows if he wants to return this season, he cannot have any delays.
Despite all this, Dave Roberts indicated that it is unlikely that Kershaw will return during the regular season, and the team is eying him to return in October.
Dodgers catcher Austin Barnes left Sunday’s game after taking a foul ball off his left foot in the Dodgers 9-2 win.
The foul ball reaggravated the same toe injury that put him on the injured list in August. With only twelve games remaining in the regular season and Branes going on the 10-day injured list, Barnes’s regular season will likely end. In his absence, the Dodgers have recalled minor league catcher Hunter Feduccia.
Right-handed relief pitcher Connor Brogdon, who the Dodgers acquired at the beginning of the season on April 6th after being DFA’d by the Philadelphia Phillies, has been on the 60-day injured list with right plantar fasciitis has been in Triple-A OKC on a rehab assignment for the last month.
He began a rehab assignment with Single-A Rancho Cucamonga on August 17th, throwing a scoreless inning. He moved to Triple-A Oklahoma City on August 20th, where he has made six scoreless appearances as of September 3rd.
However, it has been over thirty days, and the Dodgers will have to make a move soon regarding the righty, whether it’s his activation or DFA.
Right-handed pitcher Joe Kelly is expected to rejoin the Dodgers after being placed on the 15-day injured list with right shoulder inflammation for the second time this season. Kelly pitched a scoreless inning in Triple-A OKC and struck out two batters.
Tony Gonsolin, who has been out all season after undergoing Tommy John Surgery last August, has made headlines in the Dodgers sphere. The righty is eying a potential late September return to the Dodgers.
Dave Roberts said the door is "slightly open" for Gonsolin to pitch this year. Gonsolin pitched three live batting practice sessions in Arizona before rejoining the Dodgers in Los Angeles to plan his rehab assignment.
In two minor league starts, Gonsolin has a 3.86 ERA and six strikeouts in 4.2 innings pitched. In his most recent outing, the righty threw fifty pitches. While Gonsolin will not be built up as a starter, he could return to the Dodgers bullpen in a piggyback role. However, the next few days will be crucial to determine what the next steps are moving forward.
The last injury update concerns two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani, who has been rehabbing his right throwing arm all season after having Tommy John Surgery late last season.
The Dodgers at the beginning of the season, when asked if Ohtani would pitch during this season at any point in any role, was a resounding no, however; with all the Dodgers’ injuries in the pitching department, they haven’t closed the door yet.
However, MLB insider Buster Olney’s source within the Dodgers organization put the chances of Ohtani pitching at 1%, but it remains to be seen what the Dodgers opt to do moving forward.
Ohtani is set to face live hitters in the closing weeks of the regular season before shutting it down, but if he plans to pitch in October, we could see Ohtani continue his throwing program into the postseason, with the slight possibility of pitching in the National League Championship Series or World Series if the Dodgers make it that far.
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